California Biographies
Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)
History By Paul E. Vandor
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
OSCAR F. BACON. � A worthy descendant of an honored pioneer settler
of Antioch, Cal., Oscar F. Bacon, the enterprising and successful horticul-
turist residing seven miles northeast of Sanger, was born near Tonganoxie,
Kans., April 6, 1874. His father, James M. Bacon, was a native of Kentucky
coming as a pioneer settler to Kansas, he was married to Nancy J. Skaggs,
who was born in Iowa. She was the daughter of Andrew and Rachael
(Howard) Skaggs. who migrated to California in 1875, locating at Antioch.
J. M. Bacon was a farmer near Tonganoxie, and there his wife died in 1894.
When he retired he came to California and died in Sanger, December 23,
1917, aged over eighty-one years. Nine children blessed this union, seven
of whom grew up : John ; Ida ; May, deceased ; Oscar F. ; Nilo ; Albert ; and
Mrs. Mattie Edmiston.
In 1888, John Bacon migrated to California and by his glowing accounts
of the wonderful California climate, and splendid opportunities for enter-
prising young men to engage in ranching, or mercantile business, he eventually
induced the rest of the family to locate in the Golden State.
Oscar F. Bacon came to California in 1897 and located in Fresno County,
where he worked at farming, later going to Sonoma County where he was
engineer for the Duncan Mills Land and Lumber Company and the Western
Lumber Company. Returning to Fresno County in 1910, he purchased a
ranch in Round Mountain district which contained sixty acres, this he im-
proved and planted figs, prunes, peaches, grapes and oranges.
Mr. Bacon was married at Excelsior Springs, Mo., June 19, 1916, to
Julia Gray, also a native of Tonganoxie, Kans., a daughter of Matthew Gray,
who was born under the English flag on the sailer Glencairn, when his parents,
Andrew and Margaret (Burns) Gray, migrated from Ayre, Scotland, to
Canada ; later the family moved to Tonganoxie, where Mr. Gray is a suc-
cessful farmer ; his wife is Cornelia Mayginnes, born in Shelby County, Ohio,
in 1852, coming to Kansas when a girl, in 1864, and in 1875 she married
Mr. Gray; she died March 23, 1918. Mrs. Bacon is the eldest of their two
children and is a graduate from the course in Elocution in Campbell Uni-
versity at Holton.
Fraternally, Mr. Bacon was made a Mason at Guerneville and is now a
member of Sanger Lodge, No. 316; he is also a member of the Woodmen of
the World. Mrs. Bacon is a member of Rinda Chapter, O. E. S., at Tonga-
noxie.